


Mistletoes

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [48]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, Tumblr Prompt, karedevil - Freeform, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-31 14:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8581927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: Matt and Karen and a bunch of other people under mitletoes





	

He had kissed virtually everyone already. Except for her. 

When he was getting ready for the little get together in Claire’s mom’s diner, he kept telling himself he wasn’t going because of _her_. He bought a new shirt and got his pants dry cleaned, took that nice coat he never wore from the back of his closet, bought three _good_ bottles of wine. But, he would repeat in his head, it was for everybody, because it was Christmas. It was not just for her. 

But it was. When he opened the door of the diner and actually got surprised with Danny pulling him in because his senses were so focused on looking for her, he admitted it to himself. 

Soledad was the first one to kiss him, on his cheek, under one of the many mistletoes scattered around the diner. Trish was the second. Claire was the third. 

Karen had, so far, said “hey”, asked him how he was, touched his temple, under the bruise healing there, asked if he was really ok, smiled, squeezed his arm and then walked away, Danny pulling her by the arm to make a show of the kiss he placed on her cheek, under the mistletoe she had been standing under with Matt a few seconds before. 

Danny kissed her on at least four seperate times. Everyone else kissed her once.

Why do they even need so many freaking mistletoes?

The kisses had started very chaste. He had smiled and kissed Soledad’s hand one more time, pecked Trish on her cheek, laughed when Jessica threatened to punch him if he kept leaning like that.

Well after dinner, a little before one in the morning, Soledad thanked everyone for coming and all the Defenders for all they did, urging them to always take care and count on her, but announced she was going to bed. They all made a big deal of it, pleaded with her to stay, thanked her and kissed her and hugged her. Luke and Claire got up to walk her home and more bottles of wines were opened.

The kisses weren’t so chaste after that.

The shutters were closed, the lights were dimmed, the “closed” sign was up and they were all laughing, dancing to the corny Christmas playlist, having a great time. The first to kiss on his lips was from Foggy, after Jessica pointed out the mistletoe over their heads.

“C’mere, Murdock”, he said, grabbing his face and planting one on him, right on the lips, slapping his back after. People laughed and cheered and he laughed along, it felt good to have his friend back.

But, no offense to Foggy, he wasn’t the one he wanted to kiss.

Danny had been the second. He actually left Karen’s side for a moment, to go get more wine, and smirked at Matt when he saw he was standing under the little branch.

“Oh, get ready, DD!”

The laughter was bigger because he caught Matt by surprise - he was focusing on Karen again.

“Ugh, come on, man. At least pretend you’re interested.”

The next was Claire. A quick one, with a hand on his cheek and a smile.

Trish was already drunk when she kissed him. Saying good night, putting her coat on, she took his hand to help support her up while she put her heels back on.

“Why thank you”, she said, swaying. “Who knew the devil was a gentleman?”

And, under whistles and laughter and Foggy’s “get a room!”, she pulled his face to hers and smashed her mouth on his for about five seconds, laughing and taking a small curtsy after releasing him.

By three thirty, Foggy had fallen asleep on a booth. Detective Knight had smiled after Matt offered her a teasing kiss on the corner of her lips, having caught her preparing a martini on the bar, under another branch of the plant. Malcolm caugh him a little before Jessica, offering him a fist bump, saying “that’s the best you’re gonna get from me”.

Jessica actually did peck him on the cheek. And then she said “don’t get attached”.

He was sitting on a booth at the bar while Luke poured him a dose of scotch, neat.

“You couldn’t be more obvious, you know?” his friend teased, sliding the glass to him.

“What do you mean?”

“You have your back turned to her right now, but I know you’re listening. You’ve been paying attention to her the whole night. That’s why Danny got the jump on you”, he chuckled and Matt sighed.

“Well, looks like it’s not me he wants to kiss.”

“Nah”, Luke said, coming to sit on the stool next to his. “He’s just showing off a little.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Luke sighed.

“Just ask, man, come on.”

Matt blinked and let out a breath.

“What’s the color of her dress?”

“Red”, Luke said. “Bright red.”

He knew how it was shaped. A flowing skirt that stopped a little bit before her knees. It was tight on her waist and upper body, but her back was bare.

“Red lipstick, too. She looks smoking.”

“She always does”, he mused out loud. “She has a… A small pin? On her hair?”

“Yep. It’s green and gold. She’s keeping to the Christmas theme.” He took a sip of his own drink. “You guys ok?”

Matt made a face. “I guess. It’s been a while since I told her. She doesn’t seem to be mad at me anymore, and we’re talking, she went with me to Hogarth’s that day, slipped me that file.”

“But it’s not the same.”

Matt shook his head.

“No, it’s not the same. And Danny has been hogging her all night.”

“Hold on.”

Getting up, Luke went back to stand behind the bar.

“Miss Page”, he called, smoothly and Karen turned her face to look at him. “I can’t believe you haven’t let me prepare you a drink, yet.”

She smiled and Matt found himself smiling too. When she started to walk towards them, he refrained from rolling his eyes when Danny followed, like a puppy.

“You didn’t offer”, she said, sitting beside Matt, supporting her elbows on the bar.

At least Danny didn’t take the seat by her side, coming to stand next to him instead, his arm around Matt’s shoulder, watching Luke.

“Can you make me a gin and tonic?” he asked.

“In a minute, man, ladies first.”

“Hmm, let me see”, Karen mused, that little smile on her voice and shit, he missed her.

He spent the whole night trying to act normal, to be cool, but he fucking missed her so much. He figured he would miss her less, now that she was speaking to him again, he at least had been able to restore their friendship, but it was not enough, he wanted so much more.

“How about I make you a surprise one, and you tell me if you like it?”

Matt wondered if Luke was trying to help him or seduce Karen. What’s with his voice going deeper and the smirk he flashed her?

Karen raised her brows, smiling, all flirty. She blushed. What the hell, Luke.

“Sure. Why not?”

She had been drinking wine all night. Wasn’t drunk, but “sober” didn’t define her, either.

“What did you make Matt?” she asked, leaning into him a bit, taking a look at his glass.

“Macallan, neat.” Karen and Luke said, together, laughing. “But he’s boring, you’ll have something more fun.”

She laughed and touched Matt’s arm.

“Aw, he’s not boring. Did you know”, she whispered, leaning forward towards the bar, a hand coming to her face, as if she was telling a secret. “That he is Daredevil?”

“Who, this harmless looking gentleman?” Luke teased, picking bottles and a glass and a mixer and whatever. “Nah, can’t be true.”

“It is!” Karen said, sitting back, her hand still resting on his arm, fingers on the fabric of his shirt, but he felt it deep in his skin. “He told me. And then I saw it for myself. Saved me from a knife.”

“You don’t say.”

“It’s true. He saved me a bunch of times, actually. Even though I keep telling him-”

“You can take care of yourself”, Matt completed, smiling, leaning into her, pressing his shoulder to hers a bit, conspiratorially, intimately, familiar. “I know. You could use some help sometimes, though.”

She looked at his face for a second or two, and then she shrugged, looking back at Luke.

“Well. No arguments there.”   

“Sounds like a tough son of a bitch”, Luke shook the mixer and Karen flipped her hair over her shoulder. Matt could smell her shampoo and, now that he was this close, the drop of perfume she had applied to the back of her neck. He struggled not to lean in, touch his nose to her skin and inhale her. Instead, he just kept breathing, enjoying the warmth of her sitting there by his side.

“He is. Very brave, too.”

“Hey, that was the night we met, right?” Danny asked, leaning over Matt to catch her eyes. “When you got jumped by those dudes?”

Karen nodded and smiled.

“It was. You guys were running off somewhere.”

Danny turned his face to Luke and Matt stopped himself from pushing him off him, away from the bar and Karen.

“We were going to meet Stick.” 

“Oh. _That_ ray of sunshine.”

Karen laughed at that.

“I don’t think he likes me very much.”

“Well, Miss Page”, Luke said, pouring her drink on a tall glass with ice and a cherry on the bottom. “That one is more than half off his rocker. Gotta be crazy not to like a lady like you.”

She smiled and blushed again, lifting her glass to Luke.

“You’re sweet. And what am I having?”

Luke threw the dish towel over his shoulder, supported his hands on the bar and leaned towards her conspiratorially.

“That is raspberry vodka, lemon soda and Rose’s grenadine syrup. Also known as, if you will-”

“Bend over Shirley”, she said with him, again, smirking, taking a sip.

“Hmm. Lady knows her drinks”, he mused.

She gave a little flirty shrug of her shoulder.

“It’s great, Mr. Cage, thank you very much.”

“My pleasure”. Matt could kick him over that smooth quality of his voice, but then, “Why don’t you share that with Mr. Daredevil over here. Rid him of his boring ass whisky.”

“I’ll have you know, Power Man”, he offered, holding his glass, pointing at him. “That I have a very classic taste.”

“Hmm-hmm. Sure.”

“That has been his drink since I’ve met him. That and beer”, Karen offered while Danny walked around the bar to join Luke.

“What’s wrong with beer?” Matt asked her, a teasing smile.

“Nothing at all. Here, taste this.”

He took a sip of her drink through the straw. It was good, sweet, but he was paying attention to the knee that had touched his and the way her hair was dripping from her shoulder to her back.

“Ugh, someone do something about this music, please”, Jessica asked, arriving, sitting on the other side of him. “You’re not drinking this, are you? Thanks”, she picked his Macallen up and drank from it.

He would have to remember to kiss Luke when this was over. His little move worked. Karen parked herself on the stool next to him, Danny finally let go of her, going behind the bar to see if he could make a drink for Jessica (even if all she wanted was more whisky) and Claire. Karen shared her drink with him when Jessica finished his, and she was laughing. At the things he said, at the stories they told, at Danny’s disastrous attempt of bartend.

Eventually, Claire changed the music, Luke took her dancing, Jessica threatened to punch Danny (“I’m not gonna dance with you, Rand, get lost”) but ended up entertaining him after Karen said he wasn’t so bad.

He was sitting alone with her at the bar, telling her a story about his training with Stick, when he was a kid.

“That’s awful”, she decided, laughing, when he told her about the time eleven year old Matthew kept falling on the pool full of ice while trying to walk from one end to the other on tightrope.

“It is awful, I got pneumonia”, he smiled, taking her drink from her hand to take a sip, just because he wanted to touch her.

“Oh no”, she covered her mouth to muffle the laughter. “Poor thing.”

He smiled at her, giving her drink back. She was taking a sip, looking at his face, eyes trained on him, he could feel her studying his features.

And then there was a loud snore, and everyone turned to the booth Foggy had disappeared under.

Matt sighed.

“I should probably get him home”, he told Karen.

“That’s a good idea.”

He hesitated for a few more seconds, just enjoying her presence, the way the air felt around her. And then he got up, standing inches away from her, his face dropping and hers angling up.

Where the fuck was that mistletoe when he needed it.

He was about to say goodnight when she blinked, put her drink on the bar and got up.

“I’ll go with you.”

Matt fished Foggy from his makeshift bed, listening to his drunken statements of “No, I have to go, I have a meeting with Natasha Romanov in the morning” and “I have to fire my intern, he’s stealing my bagels” or objecting to a judge only he could see.

After the goodbyes were said, Karen got their coats while Danny called his car to take them to Foggy’s.

“Mike’s gonna drive you home later, don’t worry.”

He hugged Karn too long after Matt already had Foggy buckled up on the back seat of Rand’s Mercedes, telling her she owed him another dance while she laughed.  

Once they were at Foggy’s, Karen opened the door and Matt dragged him to his bed, taking his shoes off.

“You guys are good together, man”, Foggy said, sitll 90% asleep.

“Who?”

“You and Karen. It’s good, you’re different around each other. Lighter.”

And then he was snoring again.

When Matt closed the bedroom door behind him, he found Karen standing in front of a wall on the living room, by the couch.

“There’s pictures of you guys here. In college”, she said.

“Oh no”, he came to stand beside her.

“This one”, she picked his hand up and made him touch a frame. “You have your tie around your forehead.”

He could hear the smile in her words.

“Hmm. What am I wearing?”

“Oh, uh… A white shirt. Your hair is awful. Foggy is hugging you, there’s a guy with a strange hat.”

“That’s the time I entered the debate team on a dare. There was this girl-”

“Oh, there’s always a girl with you.”

“No, hear me out. This girl, who thought she knew everything about everything. We got into some kind of argument in class once, I don’t even remember why, and she kinda challenged me to make my case on the debate team. There was gonna be a competition, the winning team would go to this tournament, something like that. I won against her team, this was us celebrating.”

Karen chuckled and shook her head.

“What’s this thing around your neck?”

“Ok, yeah, that’s enough, let’s go”, he pulled her by the hand, playfully taking her away from the photos of his young, less stylish self. She laughed and pulled back on him, standing her ground.

“That’s a very trendy leather necklace you got there, councilor.”

“Please, let’s go”, he touched his forehead to her shoulder, her hand still in his and she shook with suppressed laughter.

“And the hair, oh boy. It’s a wonder you got anyone to date you, at all.”

Lifting his face again, he smiled in her direction and shrugged.

“I did alright.”

“I know, I’ve heard the stories.”

There it was. Perfect.

They were looking at each other, he could feel the heat from her skin, the way her body curved beneath her clothes, how her hair was all swept to one side, the green and gold pin holding the strands together.

“I feel like I’m missing something”, he said, the corners of his mouth curving up.

“What?” she said, and, yes, victory. That’s the voice he wanted to hear. Soft, low, intimate. With his free hand, he pointed up. She let out a breathy laugh.

“What is that?”

“I believe it’s a Foggy Bear? Marci must have put it there” he provided while she inspected the stuffed animal, sitting on a tiny chair who hanged from the ceiling. “And it’s holding something, right?”

He could feel the moment she saw it, the mistletoe branch being “held” by the bear. Her fingers twitched in his, she blinked fast, bit the inside of her lower lip and swallowed. But she didn’t pull away.

When she looked back at him, he took a slow step closer to her.

“Merry Christmas, Karen.”

She stood still, looking at him, and her voice came even better when she spoke.

“It’s not Christmas, yet.”

“Doesn’t matter”, Matt replied, taking that final step, raising his hand, just like he had that first time, pulling her to him by her neck, touching his lips to hers.

He meant to go softly. He didn’t know what she thought about this, yet, how she would react, their history was still too fresh. So he was just going to touch his lips to hers, as if they were both twelve. Best not to push too hard.

But she let out a breath and opened up to him, angling her head to the side a bit, her tongue poking out timidly, touching his lower lip and he’s only a man. Letting go of whatever it is that he was holding (his coat? Foggy’s? A scarf? He didn’t even know anymore), Matt lifted his other hand to cradle her face against his, letting himself kiss her like he had been dreaming of for God knows how long, now.

None of that tentative, experimental lock of lips like they had shared in the rain (even if he had lost count of how many times his mind went back to that particular moment) or even the deeper, loving kisses they had shared while sitting on the front steps of her building, or the little pecks they stole throughout the day during that small time they dated. Those had all been great, they had been fuel for his mind when he was missing her too much, the memories lulled him to sleep, invaded his mind when he needed to focus on something else.

But this, oh, this was better, he dared say. When he slid his hand from her neck, it was skin he felt under his hand, not fabric. The open back of her party dress had been a blessing at the diner, where he could only sense it and smell the perfume on the air. Now that he felt it under his palm, the smooth texture of her skin against his fingertips while she put her arms around his neck, pulling him to her, kissing him back, slowly, intensely, matching his hunger with her own.

Suddenly, she stirred against him.         

“The, uh, car… Mike’s waiting in the car”, she said, breathing against him, those fingers in his hair, oh, he didn’t even know he missed that.

His hands held her by her waist while he breathed, his forehead against hers, she was right. Making out in Foggy’s living room while Danny’s driver waited for them downstairs wasn’t the best idea.

“Right. We should go, then.”

When he finished his sentence, her mouth was right there on his again, she was kissing him so fiercely, one of her hands pulling the front of his shirt to her and he went, of course he did, how could he not?

Karen lifted her face from his, looking up at the ceiling, letting out a heavy breath while his mouth landed on her neck, she tasted fantastic.

“Come on, let’s go”, she said, picking his coat from the floor and hers from the couch, taking him by the hand towards the door.

He kissed her while they climbed down the stairs, making her giggle and sigh. Before they got out of the building, though, he reasoned that it was best if Mike took her to her apartment and then him to his.

She had a lot of booze in her, he didn’t want this to become a mistake later. He really wanted it to stick, he wanted to do this, this time. Do it right.

“That’s the second time you refuse to come up with me”, she said, low, so Mike wouldn’t hear her, her head resting against the car seat while they made their way to her building. He took her hand and kissed it.

“And it kills me everytime. But it’s different this time”, he turned a bit and caressed her face, touching his forehead to hers. “All I want is to make sure that this is what you want. I know you’re still a bit mad at me, I don’t want you to regret it in the morning.”

Sighing, she bumped her nose to his and move to sit straight again.

“you think too much.”

When they arrived at her door, he walked out of the car to walk the steps with her.

“Good night, Mr. Murdock”, she said, again, it was almost like deja vu. He smiled, but ran a thumb over her lips, just so she knew he was thinking about her, that he was going to fall asleep thinking about her, wake up thinking about her.

“Good night, Miss Page. Call me if, by any chance, you don’t sleep this off.”

She chuckled, leaned in to press a quick peck on his lips, opened the door and got in.

When he was back in the car, he sighed.

“Do you think I’m insane, Mike?”

“A little bit, Mr. Murdock.”

.:.

The sun was rising by the time he was ready for bed. And, as he had thought, the taste of her tongue was still on his, the feel of her lips, he could still feel her skin under his hands.

Seconds after he touched his head to his pillow, closing his eyes to try and sleep, his phone went off.

_“Karen. Karen. Karen.”_

He picked it up so fast he almost dropped it on his own face.

“Hi”, he breathed, already smiling, his heart beating harder.

“I’m not gonna sleep it off”, she said.

Breathing, he bit his lower lip. “Good.”

“The window is open”, she said, hanging up, and he shot out of bed to put his clothes on again.

.:.

Matt woke up when his stomach complained the lack of food. Judging by the noise outside, it was the middle of the day. Karen’s back was firmly pressed against his chest, her hair caught in his eye lashes when he opened his eyes, her heart beat steady under his hand.

He would never complain about mistletoes, ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> I miss them dearly


End file.
